Manuscripts from the Regional Museum in Teplice

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From the collections of the Regional Museum in Teplice, a thematically homogeneous collection of five codices, probably coming from the last third of the 17th century, was digitised in 2019. One of the manuscripts is written in Latin and contains ‘statuta philosophorum incognitorum’ and an unfinished copy of leafs written by the alchemist Michael Sendivogius; the others mostly use French and comprise sets of alchemical, medical, chemical, technical, and other guidelines and procedures. All codices are connected with the stay and activities of the alchemist Bartolomeus Mencelius at the castle in Teplice in the last third of the 17th century, after which they became part of the castle library of the Clary-Aldringen family.

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Two manuscripts from the 14th century which belonged to the monastery of the Augustinian Canons in Roudnice nad Labem in the Middle Ages were digitised from the collections of the National Museum Library. The first (XIII A 1) contains a collection of letters of Pope Gregory I, the second (XIII A 3) a commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark by Thomas Aquinas.

The manuscripts of the National Library that have recently been made accessible can be divided into several groups. The largest of them comprises medieval codices mostly of Czech origin, whose content is quite varied: there are preaching and theological, but also legal, liturgical, medical, mathematical and astronomical texts. The most interesting manuscript in German (shelf mark XVI) are the town statutes of Horní Slavkov. The digitised items further included two volumes of the Memoirs of Vilém Slavata of Chlum and Košumberk from the collections of the Prague Lobkowicz Library and various copies of earlier historical sources from the Thun-Hohenstein Library in Děčín. Two manuscripts from the 17th and 18th centuries were made accessible also from collections of the Slavonic Library.

The greatest part of digitised manuscripts of the Military History Institute in Prague is formed by reports of Prince Albert Casimir August of Saxony, Duke of Teschen, on various military conflicts of the last quarter of the 18th century, accompanied by extensive map material and tabular overviews. Smaller volumes contain copies of military orders, reports on military campaigns and treatises on ammunition casting.

Another part of the manuscripts from the collections of the National Library that have been made accessible contains mainly modern handwritten copies of earlier historical sources coming from the Thun-Hohenstein library in Děčín (shelf mark XIX); handwritten copies of works by Bohuslav Balbín can be found in the two-volume manuscript XXIII.C.40. The medieval codices that have recently been digitised are of Czech origin and were written in the second half of the 14th century and at the beginning of the 15th century; in terms of content, they are an assortment of sermonic, mystical, natural-science, theological and philosophical works.

From the collections in the Museum of Jindřichův Hradec, a large collection of manuscripts and early printed books has been digitised. The earliest codices include a gradual from the beginning of the 16th century, used and complemented also in the next centuries (RK 533), and a breviary from 1521 (RK 001); later manuscripts are represented mainly by prayer books. The earliest printed book is Kniha lékařská [Medical Book] by Jan Černý (Niger), printed in Nuremberg in 1517 (S 0012); a collection of Latin occasional poetry comprises the binder’s volume S 0099. Other books printed in Czech and German come mainly from the eighteenth century, namely from the workshops of printers in Jindřichův Hradec: Jan Bedřich Jakeš, František Antonín Schönstein, Hynek (Ignác) Vojtěch and František Petr Hilgartner and Josef Alois Landfras.

In 2014, the Research Library in Olomouc digitised two manuscripts with theological and homiletic content. They both come from the second half of the 14th century; one formed part of the library of the Carthusian monastery in Prague – Smíchov (M I 326) while the other belonged to the monastery of the same order in Dolany (M II 246).

The documents of the National Library of the CR that have recently been digitised comprise mainly medieval manuscripts with theological and homiletic content, usually coming from the Czech lands from the 14th century or the beginning of the 15th century. Medical (VII.H.16) and liturgical (processional VI.G.3b from the beginning of the 14th century from the monastery of St George’s monastery at Prague Castle) manuscripts are represented as well. Three manuscripts from the collections of the former Thun-Hohenstein library in Děčín contain modern copies of diverse historical sources; likewise two manuscripts from the collections of the Slavonic Library have been digitised.

The digitisation of the National Archive collections continued by providing access to nine early printed books from the Waldstein Castle Library in the Doksy Chateau. They are all related to the events of the Thirty Year’s War, but they were printed in a broader time range (1629–1650) and in diverse lands (Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, England and Spain).

From the collections of the Museum of Eastern Bohemia in Hradec Králové, a homogeneous group of five sheet-music codices that were created in the 16th century and at the beginning of the 17th century and belonged to the literati brotherhood at the choir of the church of the Holy Spirit in Hradec Králové (Hr 30–34) has been digitised. They contain records of individual voices of Latin polyphonic motets and songs or sacramental hymns.

A major part of the recently digitised manuscripts of the National Library of the Czech Republic are codices of the former Prague Lobkowicz Library. A homogeneous collection is formed by eleven volumes of historical works and excerpts (XXIII.C.5/1–11) from the property of Thomas Anton Putzlacher; many of which contain works by the historian Jan Florián Hammerschmidt. Further manuscripts of the Lobkowicz collection come from the library of the Premonstratensian monastery in Weissenau and were written in the 12th–15th centuries. Six other manuscripts, written in German, contain also the three-volume chronicle of the Benedictine Emmaus Monastery, capturing the period of 1877–1930 (XVI.A.81–XVI.A.83). Another six manuscripts come from the 15th century and, with the exception of the Latin Historia destructionis Troiae by Guido de Columnis (VIII.B.17), these are exegeses of the Bible, mainly of the Book of Psalms.

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Manuscriptorium Project

The Manuscriptorium project is creating a virtual research environment providing access to all existing digital documents in the sphere of historic book resources (manuscripts, incunabula, early printed books, maps, charters and other types of documents). These historical resources, otherwise scattered in various digital libraries around the world, are now available under a single digital library interface.